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Royal Air Force Bomber
Command 60th Anniversary

Campaign Diary
April 1943

1 April 1943

12 Mosquitos bombed a power-station and railway yards at Trier. Both
targets were hit.

A lone Lancaster of No 103 Squadron, again piloted by Squadron Leader
C O'Donoghue, set out to bomb the town of Emmerich just over the German
border, but the Lancaster was shot down over Holland and the crew were
all killed.

Trier Railway Yards

2 April 1943

The only Bomber Command operation on this day was the first sortie
of the newly formed No 1409 (Meteorological) Flight, based at Oakington.
One Mosquito, crewed by Flight Lieutenant P Cunliffe-Lister and Sergeant
I Doyle, made a weather reconnaissance flight to Brittany in preparation
for the Bomber Command raids to be carried out in the coming night.
The Flight operated until the end of the war, flying 1,364 sorties and
losing only 3 Mosquitos.

2/3 April 1943

55 mixed aircraft to St Nazaire and 47 to Lorient in the last raids
on these French ports. Bomber Command was released from the obligation
to bomb these targets 3 days later. 1 Lancaster was lost from the St
Nazaire raid.

33 aircraft laid mines off the southern part of the Biscay coast. 1
Lancaster lost.

3 April 1943

3/4 April 1943

Essen. 348 aircraft - 225 Lancasters, 113 Halifaxes, 10 Mosquitos;
this was the first raid in which more than 200 Lancasters had taken
part. 12 Halifaxes and 9 Lancasters lost - 6.0 per cent of the force
- and 2 further Halifaxes crashed in England. The weather forecast was
not entirely favourable for this raid and the Pathfinders prepared a
plan both for skymarking and ground-marking the target and the Main
Force crews were somewhat confused to find two kinds of marking taking
place. The resultant bombing, however, was accurate and a higher proportion
of aircraft produced good bombing photographs than on any of the earlier
successful raids on Essen. Local reports showed that there was widespread
damage in the centre and in the western half of Essen.

4 April 1943

60 Venturas attacked an airfield near Caen (24 aircraft), a shipyard
at Rotterdam (24 aircraft) and a railway target as St Brieuc (12 aircraft).
All targets were successfully bombed but 2 aircraft from the Rotterdam
raid were lost.

4/5 April 1943

577 aircraft - 203 Lancasters, 168 Wellingtons, 116 Halifaxes, 90 Stirlings
- on the largest raid so far to Kiel, more than twice as many aircraft
as on any previous raid taking part. This was also the largest 'non-1,000'
bombing force of the war so far. 12 aircraft - 5 Lancasters, 4 Halifaxes,
2 Stirlings, 1 Wellington - lost, 2.1 per cent of the force. The Pathfinders
encountered thick cloud and strong winds over the target so that accurate
marking became very difficult. It was reported that decoy fire sites
may also have drawn off some of the bombing.

Preparing a Halifax

5 April 1943

12 Venturas attacked a tanker at Brest. The ship was not hit but nearby
dock installations were. 3 Venturas were lost.

9/10 April 1943

10/11 April 1943

502 aircraft - 144 Wellingtons, 136 Lancasters, 124 Halifaxes, 98 Stirlings
- raided Frankfurt. Complete cloud cover in the target area again led
to a failure. The bombing photographs of every aircraft showed nothing
but cloud and Bomber Command had no idea where bombs had fallen. Frankfurt
reports only a few in the suburbs of the city south of the River Main.
21 aircraft - 8 Wellingtons, 5 Lancasters, 5 Stirlings, 3 Halifaxes
- lost, 4.2 per cent of the force.

11 April 1943

11/12 April 1943

Minelaying: 46 aircraft were sent to lay mines off Texel, Brittany
and the Biscay ports. 1 Stirling and 1 Wellington lost.

13 April 1943

24 Venturas bombed railway targets at Abbeville and Caen but most of
the bombs missed their targets. No Venturas lost.

13/14 April 1943

208 Lancasters and 3 Halifaxes bombed the dock area of La Spezia and
caused heavy damage. 4 Lancasters were lost and 3 more, either damaged
or in mechanical difficulty, flew on to land at Allied airfields in
North Africa. It is believed that this was the first occasion that the
recently captured North African airfields were used for Bomber Command
aircraft in distress. The 3 Lancasters flew back to England later.

6 Mosquitos of No 105 Squadron, carried out nuisance raids to Bremen,
Hamburg and Wilhelmshaven, 2 aircraft being sent to each target. These
were the first non-Oboe Mosquito night raids and were the forerunners
of Light Night Striking Force operations; the Germans hated the nuisance
and harassing effect of the Mosquito raids and could rarely shoot down
any of these fast, high-flying aircraft. The Mosquito was later modified
to carry a 4,000lb bomb as far as Berlin - a favourite Mosquito target
- and, in winter, individual Mosquitos were sometimes able to make 2
flights to Berlin under the cover of darkness in the same night, changing
crews after the first landing.

10 Lancasters minelaying off Germany, 18 OTU sorties. 1 OTU Wellington
was lost in the sea.

La Spezia

14/15 April 1943

462 aircraft - 146 Wellingtons, 135 Halifaxes, 98 Lancasters, 83 Stirlings
- bombed Stuttgart. The Pathfinders claimed to have marked the centre
of this normally difficult target accurately but the main bombing area
developed to the north-east, along the line of approach of the bombing
force. This was an example of the 'creepback', a feature of large raids
which occurred when Main Force crews - and some Pathfinder backers-up
- failed to press through to the centre of the marking area but bombed
- or re-marked - the earliest markers visible. Bomber Command was never
able to eliminate the creepback tendency and much bombing fell outside
city areas because of it. 23 aircraft - 8 Stirlings, 8 Wellingtons,
4 Halifaxes, 3 Lancasters - lost, 5.0 per cent of the force.

15 April 1943

13 Venturas bombed a whaling factory ship in dry dock at Cherbourg.
Bomb bursts were seen to straddle the target. No Venturas lost.

15/16 April 1943

16 April 1943

25 Venturas bombed a chemical factory at Ostend and railway yards at
Haarlem without loss.

The bombing at Ostend was accurate but the Haarlem raid hit housing
near the railway causing many casualties. 85 Dutch people were killed
and 160 injured and the old Town Hall was damaged by fire.

16/17 April 1943

327 aircraft - 197 Lancasters and 130 Halifaxes dispatched to bomb
the Skoda armaments factory at Pilsen in Czechoslovakia. 18 Lancasters
and 18 Halifaxes lost, 11.0 per cent of the force. One Canadian squadron,
No 408, lost 4 of its 12 Halifaxes dispatched. This raid, took place
by the light of a full moon but was not a success. In a complicated
plan, the Main Force was ordered to confirm the position of the Skoda
factory visually; the Pathfinder markers were only intended as a general
guide. In the event, a large asylum building 7 miles away was mistaken
for the factory and only 6 crews brought back bombing photographs which
were within 3 miles of the real target. The Skoda factory was not hit.
One report says that 200 German soldiers were killed when their barracks
near the asylum was bombed.

Total effort for the night: 609 sorties, 54 aircraft (8.9 per
cent) lost. The aircraft losses on this night were the highest so far
in the war, exceeding the 50 lost on the 1,000-bomber-type raid on Bremen
on 25/26 June 1942, but 14 of the aircraft lost from the Pilsen and
Mannheim raids came down in the sea and a proportion of their crews
were rescued.

17 April 1943

37 Venturas bombed railway targets at Abbeville and Caen and a power-station
at Zeebrugge. All targets were hit and no aircraft were lost.

17/18 April 1943

Minelaying: 24 aircraft laid mines off the Biscay ports without loss.

18 April 1943

18/19 April 1943

173 Lancasters and 5 Halifaxes were dispatched to bomb the dockyard
at La Spezia but the centre of the bombing was north-west of the aiming
point. The main railway station and many public buildings were hit.
1 Lancaster was lost. 8 further Lancasters laid mines off La Spezia
harbour.

10 Stirlings minelaying in southern Biscay, 5 OTU sorties. No losses.

19 April 1943

6 Mosquitos to bomb railway workshops at Namur could not locate the
target in bad visibility. No aircraft lost.

20 April 1943

36 Venturas bombed railway yards at Boulogne, shipping at Cherbourg
and the power-station at Zeebrugge. No Venturas lost.

20/21 April 1943

339 aircraft - 194 Lancasters, 134 Halifaxes, 11 Stirlings - ordered
to attack Stettin. This raid, on a target more than 600 miles from England,
proved to be the most successful attack beyond the range of Oboe during
the Battle of the Ruhr. Visibility was good and the Pathfinder marking
was carried out perfectly. 24 fires were still burning when a photographic
reconnaissance aircraft flew over Stettin a day and a half later. 21
aircraft - 13 Lancasters, 7 Halifaxes, 1 Stirling - lost, 6.2 per cent
of the force.

86 Stirlings were dispatched to attack the Heinkel factory near Rostock
but a smoke-screen concealed this target and bombing was scattered.
8 Stirlings were lost.

11 Mosquitos carried out a raid to Berlin as a diversion for the forces
attacking Stettin and Rostock; 18 Wellingtons were minelaying off Brittany
ports and there were 3 OTU sorties. 1 Mosquito was lost from the Berlin
raid.

24 April 1943

26 April 1943

26/27 April 1943

Duisburg. 561 aircraft - 215 Lancasters, 135 Wellingtons, 119 Halifaxes,
78 Stirlings, 14 Mosquitos. 17 aircraft - 7 Halifaxes, 5 Wellingtons,
3 Lancasters, 2 Stirlings - lost, 3.0 per cent of the force. This heavy
raid was a partial failure. The Pathfinders claimed to have marked the
target accurately but daylight reconnaissance showed that most of the
bombing had fallen to the north-east of Duisburg; the Main Force may
have bombed too early or they may have been lured by early fires short
of the target. However, Duisburg had more than 300 buildings destroyed
and a death roll of between 130 and 207 (reports vary). 4 of the Mosquitos
taking part in this raid were from No 2 Group; they bombed Duisburg
3 hours after the main raid, then dived hard and flew back to England
at low level. Bombs hit 6 other towns in the Ruhr.

8 OTU aircraft dropped leaflets over France without loss.

27 April 1943

12 Venturas dispatched to attack a railway target at St Brieuc turned
back because of l0/l0ths cloud.

28/29 April 1943

Minelaying: 207 aircraft - 68 Lancasters, 60 Halifaxes, 47 Wellingtons,
32 Stirlings - carried out another large minelaying operation. 167 aircraft
laid 593 mines off Heligoland, in the River Elbe and in the Great and
Little Belts. Low cloud over the German and Danish Coasts forced the
minelayers to fly low in order to establish their positions before laying
their mines and much German light flak activity was seen. 22 aircraft
- 7 Lancasters, 7 Stirlings, 6 Wellingtons, 2 Halifaxes - were lost.
This was the heaviest loss of aircraft while minelaying in the war,
but the number of mines laid was the highest in one night.

6 Mosquitos carried out a raid to Wilhelmshaven, dropping many flares
to divert attention from that part of the minelaying force which was
operating near by. No Mosquitos lost.

30 April/1 May 1943

305 aircraft - 190 Lancasters, 105 Halifaxes, 10 Mosquitos - to Essen.
Cloud was expected over the target so a Pathfinder technique based solely
on Oboe Mosquito skymarkers was planned. This was not expected to give
such good results as ground-marking but the plan worked well and 238
crews reported that they had bombed Essen. Because of the cloud, no
bombing photographs were produced. The Krupps factory was hit again.
6 Halifaxes and 6 Lancasters lost, 3.9 per cent of the force.